James, Eric, Mark, Timothy, Jimmy, Doug, the other James, Terrence, Kenneth, Kevin, Brent, Michael and, unfortunately, even Frank & Warren (great letter) are being shown up in every way by General President, Sean O’Brien of the Teamsters! He is the only one we can legitimately call Brother if you really stop and think about it…. Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Organizing
14 Trades Need Teamster General President O’Brien to be Their President –
May Day – As a Person of Labor, If You Do Not Know the Significance of This Date, You Are a Poser
Work 2 Rule – building to a day of reckoning in the trades. Management does NOT own the job – nor the senior trades leaders – we, the workers, do! Consider: Measurable market share over the past 50 years has continuously declined “NET” across the trades. Density of trades workers vs. non-union workers is worse… Continue Reading
Where are the AFL Women?
Sister Mary Kenney O’Sullivan was the first female organizer of the AFL in 1888. She lasted 5 months before having a falling out with Gompers. Use the link below to read her bio. You will notice strong parallels of the male leaders back then to today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kenney_O%27Sullivan Approximately 20 years ago the NABTU (North America’s… Continue Reading
The Building Trades Has Many PIGs (Passive Income Generators) Feeding Off the Trough Fed by the Rank & File
The definition of Passive Income Generators: a business (Building Trades promote themselves as businesses) that produces passive income that can be used to offset passive losses (pitiful attempts to sell themselves and us). The Building Trades, trades’ Internationals and their marketing arms all use the term Value, which as a noun, denotes the importance, worth… Continue Reading
“Any fool can make a rule – And any fool will mind it.” ― Henry David Thoreau
I submit this quote aptly applies to the International/District Council officers as they are “loyal to a fault” to their respective General Presidents. Here’s another: “The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules” – Banksy. What they’re talking about here is blind obedience…. Continue Reading
Marty Walsh Leaves the Building Trades Better Than he Found it….
….consistent with the oath taken by all Building Trades members. He stabilized the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board). He was a key player in the effort to secure $91 billion from taxpayers to shore up Taft-Hartley pensions. And, he advanced infrastructure in the U.S. Now Marty is off to the NHL and his successor has… Continue Reading
Time to Push the Numbers Baby – A Rank & File Trades MOVEMENT
When I first became an Ironworker Organizer, my BM sent me to train under Brent Emons BM for IW 8. Driving the backroads of northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan, I asked him, “What is the single best trait that makes an organizer good or even great?” His response was – persistence! I never… Continue Reading
Plus +13% in 2017 Replaced With Minus -12% in 2022
How the Taft-Hartley pension funding numbers are calculated today are dreadful. They have been dreadful for many years since the passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and a few more germane laws since then which have changed how funding levels are calculated today! Take ALL Taft-Hartley pension plan assets (minus ANY bailouts) and… Continue Reading
Our Own Tammany Hall – But all Trades Internationals Have a William “Boss” Tweed at the Helm –
The electricians shuffle. Fresh out of convention the current International President has resigned, and an appointment will fill the remainder of his presidency starting January 4th, 2023, with their small cabal of insiders exclusively dictating who that is. All trades, by and large, have done this. The rank & file seldom gets a vote. Before… Continue Reading
Biden & the Railway Workers – Nothing Our International Presidents Haven’t Done to Us for 50 Years –
Which, by the way, is giving the management alliance bosses what they want! In fact, the numbers over the last five decades demonstrate that our senior officers have perfected being “toadies” to the “bosses”. Consider – How much has the price of a dollar increased since 1975? The dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.70%… Continue Reading